Senator-Judge Joel Villanueva  questioned the reliability of GenCorp’s corporate filings at Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial on Wednesday, Nov. 11, while Senator-Judge Panfilo Lacson insisted that Duterte’s sworn asset declarations carry more weight than the company’s stockholders’ list.

Duterte declared GenCorp shares in her 2024 and 2025 Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs). The witness, the company’s corporate lawyer, Atty. Suzette Balucanag-Punay, maintained that Duterte is not a shareholder at GenCorp, which bagged millions of contracts in Davao City.

Villanueva stressed that the corporate filings of GenCorp Industries Inc. are unreliable as the documents were so riddled with inaccuracies that its official stockholders’ list could not be trusted.

“Binanggit niyo nga po kanina, ‘not perfect,’ which I don’t agree kasi parang masyadong underrated ‘yung not perfect. Ang daming mali dito sa GIS (General Information Sheets), maraming inaccuracies. Would you agree with that, ma’am?” Villanueva pressed Punay.

“Agree,” replied Punay.

Villanueva pounced on Punay’s admission by asking, “So, posible din po ba na mali din ang listahan ng stockholders, Your Honor, Madam Witness?”

While Punay insisted she was “certain” of the accuracy of the roster of stockholders, Villanueva quipped that it was also possible for the list to be incomplete.

“Maaaring hindi rin po nabanggit na may iba pang stockholders. At dahil nga nasa pagdinig tayo ng impeachment ng ating Pangalawang Pangulo, wala din po talaga diyan ang ating Pangalawang Pangulo,” Villanueva said.

The reliability of GenCorp’s corporate paperwork further crumbled when Senator-Judge Lacson, drawing from his decades in public office, questioned why Duterte would declare an asset in her SALN if she never owned it.

“Let’s forget for a while that the Vice President is the issue or the central issue in this proceeding. Ang tanong ko lang po is, would you have declared an asset in your SALN that you’ve never owned or had in the first place and in fact at any point in your life?” Lacson asked Punay, who spent five years as a government investigator at PhilHealth.

“No po,” Punay responded.

“Hindi, ‘di ba? Because if you did, it defies logic and even common sense,” Lacson stressed. “Kasi wala ka man lang memory. Kung dating meron kang pag-aari at nawala, pwede mo pang magkamali ka, ‘di ba?”

Lacson also asked Punay about the admissibility and evidentiary weight of Duterte’s declarations and the corporate filings.

“This is getting to be interesting, but also confusing. From a layman to a lawyer, Atty. Suzette, between an admission against interest—notarized—and official public documents like the GIS (General Information Sheet), which has more admissibility and probative weight?” Lacson asked.

Punay answered it was SEC filings, but Lacson countered by citing Rule 130 of the Rules of Court and pointing to Duterte’s sworn declarations that she held shares in the company.

Private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan argued that an admission ranks “highest” in the hierarchy of evidence. She cited a provision of Rule 130 that allows a party’s act, statement or omission concerning a relevant fact to be used as evidence against that party.

The contrast lies at the very heart of Article II of the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte, who is accused of having undeclared assets and unexplained wealth which, according to an estimate by forensic financial analyst Atty. Alexander Cabrera, amounted to at least P817.17 million between 2022 and 2025.

Cabrera attributed P212.63 million of that sum through GenCorp using a 20% economic-interest benchmark, citing Duterte’s own 2024 and 2025 SALN where she explicitly declared that she was a GenCorp shareholder.

In those filings, Duterte declared that GenCorp was formerly Times Square Bee Food Corp. and Great Jolly Times Food, though corporate papers examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission showed no formal record of her shares.IMT